The side mission can be failed by ending the side mission, leaving or destroying the Ambulance, or by killing one patient, which can occur after numerous bumps (which hurts the patient) or running over patients. Failing the paramedic side mission results in the player having to start from the first level, except in GTA Vice City Stories and GTA Advance, where the player can resume from the last checkpoint.

In GTA III, a level has to be completed in order for the "patients rescued" stat be updated. Not completing the level means no update to the stat even though patients are actually rescued.

In GTA Vice City Stories, there is a checkpoint at the end of levels 5 and 10. In GTA Advance - after each level. If the checkpoint has been passed but the mission is failed, the mission can be resumed from the checkpoint.

Vehicles

Tips

Using the Ambulance's normal brakes is actually not recommended for this mission. Since the vehicle might automatically go into reverse after being stopped completely you can accidentally back over and kill a patient that is running up behind the Ambulance. To prevent this, use the normal brakes just to slow down, and then the handbrake to stop completely.

Removing all the doors from the Ambulance before you start the mission allows the patients to enter the car much faster than if they would have to open and close the doors themselves.

Be wary of old people, some of them move much slower than the other patients so parking up further away from them can waste precious time.

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the easiest way to complete this mission is to start it in either Fort Carson or Angel Pine, as they are small towns with a hospital so when picking up patients the hospital will be near, and the patients will usually be in close proximity to each other. However, the time allotted to pick up patients will be correspondingly less.

Ambulances are not immune to wanted levels, so one must be careful not to hit police vehicles, or run over someone in view of the police, during the mission.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the player can offload patients at any location, by performing a drive-by in either direction. If used in the proximity of a police officer or patient, it can give the player a one star wanted level, or kill the patient.

In GTA III the side-mission is harder than in any other 3D Universe games. The Ambulance seems to be very big and very unstable when cornering (the player has to use the brakes almost at every corner).

Always keep the siren on during the whole mission. Cars will move to the side of the road which allows you to keep moving without stopping or risk injuring the patients. Be careful though as cops will not move out of the way.

Trivia

In GTA San Andreas, due to a glitch, two patients may sometimes spawn inside of each other while standing on the sidewalk. However, if the player drives the ambulance up to them, they may pop out of each other and enter the ambulance like normal.

In GTA San Andreas, if you roll the ambulance onto its side for a period of time all patients will get out and no longer need to go to the hospital, when the ambulance rights itself you can carry on with the mission.